Diana Ross has tax bill cut by assessment board

Frank MacEachern, Staff Writer

Published 9:09 pm, Monday, April 5, 2010

A former Motown diva who is one of the most popular recording artists of all time shouldn't be singing the blues after the town's Board of Assessment Appeals cut her tax bill by lowering the assessment of her Belle Haven mansion.

Diana Ross, who used to lived in a 12,562-square-foot mansion on a five-acre lot at 65 Meadow Wood Drive, got about $24,000 cut from her $168,000 tax bill, said Jeff Reardon, assessment appeals board chairman. The tax bill includes an adjacent four-acre waterfront property she owns.

For her mansion, the assessment was lowered from $10.1 million to $8.4 million, while the vacant waterfront property was lowered by a little more than $1 million from $10.8 million to $9.8 million.

Reardon said the house hasn't been updated and shows its age.

"It's rather archaic. It was built in the 1920s," he said. "It's a wonderful house, but it needs some work."

Ross put the mansion up for sale for a reported $39.5 million in 2007, only to take it off the market. The town has it valued at $14.4 million.

The mansion has 11 bedrooms, six full bathrooms, five fireplaces, a hot tub, pool, a tennis court and two apartments over the garage.

In 2004, Ross appealed on similar grounds and received a $30,000 reduction on her bill.

The property has been rented for the last few years, Ross' lawyer Melissa Klauberg told an assessment hearing last month. Reardon said the board agreed with Klauberg's argument that the assessment should be lowered on the waterfront property as well. Instead of having a clear view of Long Island Sound, the parcel looks out over an inlet and other homes, some of which are under construction.

"We felt the location so far up the harbor didn't justify the value the town put on it," Reardon said.

However, the board didn't agree with Klauberg's contention that noise from nearby Interstate 95 should be factored into lowering the assessment. Klauberg could not be reached for comment.

Eighty-one of the 271 property owners who appealed were successful, Reardon said. The last assessment was done in 2005, with another one scheduled for this fall. Assessments are 70 percent of full market value.

There were initially 287 applicants, but 16 withdrew before having a hearing, Reardon said.

Charles Davidson, co-founder of Greenwich-based Wexford Capital LP, a multibillion-dollar hedge and private equity fund management company, only saw a $23,000 cut in his assessment. It dropped to $19,350,730 from $19,373,270.

It would reduce the current tax bill of just under $156,000 by about $200, Reardon said.

The town had said a gatehouse was air conditioned and that another building had a fireplace. Reardon said neither were present, resulting in the assessment cut.

Davidson sought a $1 million reduction on his assessment because of wetlands on his 155 Byram Shore Road property, which town officials said he bought for $22 million in 2006.

Last month Reardon said the town has tacked $5 million onto the property's value to reflect the ongoing construction of a new mansion, which is about 50 percent complete. The building permit for the new house values it at $11 million.